This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-29337 filed on May 27, 2002, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wall-mounted type microwave oven, and more particularly, to a wall-mounted type microwave oven having an exhaust fan assembly which upwardly protrude s from an oven body so as to enlarge an internal volume of a cooking chamber. The exhaust fan assembly is detachably coupled to an oven body of the microwave oven to easily change a discharging direction of exhaust gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a conventional wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 installed over an oven range 2. Generally, the wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 exhausts gas and fumes generated from the oven range 2 to the outside, and cooks food therein using high-frequency electromagnetic waves.
The oven range 2 is provided at its top with a plurality of top burners 3 to cook food, for example, by combustion of gas. The wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 is adapted to cook food in a cooking chamber (not shown) by an intermolecular frictional heat which is generated by repeatedly agitating water molecules of the food with high-frequency electromagnetic wave energy generated from a magnetron (not shown).
FIG. 2 schematically shows an internal configuration of the wall-mounted type microwave oven 1. The wall-mounted microwave oven 1 includes an exhaust path 13 to suck in exhaust gas and odors generated from cooking of the food and to discharge them to the outside, and a cooking chamber 11 and an electrical component compartment 12, which are isolated from each other in an oven body 10.
The cooking chamber 11 and the electrical component compartment 12 are provided at their bottoms, sides and tops with the exhaust path 13 to exhaust the gas and fumes generated from the oven range 2 (see FIG. 1) disposed below the wall-mounted type microwave oven 1. The oven body 10 is provided at an upper portion of its back with an exhaust fan 14 which sucks in the exhaust gas and fumes introduced into the exhaust path 13, and discharges them to the outside. The exhaust path 13 constitutes a flow path isolated from the cooking chamber 11 and the electrical component compartment 12.
The electrical component compartment 12 includes a cooling fan 15 which cools electric components disposed in the electrical component compartment 12. The electrical component compartment 12 is further provided at an upper portion of its front face with a front air inlet 16, which allows outside air to be introduced into the electrical component compartment 12 therethrough by operation of the cooling fan 15. A partition plate 17 which is located between the cooking chamber 11 and the electrical component compartment 12 is formed with a plurality of vent holes 18, so as to introduce air sucked into the electrical component compartment 12 into the cooking chamber 11 therethrough to ventilate the cooking chamber 11. The cooking chamber 11 is formed with a plurality of vent holes 19 at its upper surface and on the side opposite to the partition plate 17 to allow the air in the cooking chamber 11 to be discharged to the outside therethrough. The cooking chamber 11 is also provided with a front air outlet 20 which allows the air passing through the vent holes 19 to be discharged to the outside therethrough.
However, since the exhaust fan 14 is internally provided at an upper portion of the oven body 10, a portion of the oven body is necessarily reserved to accommodate the exhaust fan 14. Accordingly, the internal volume of the cooking chamber 11 is reduced by a height required to accommodate the exhaust fan 14. Therefore, the internal space of the wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 is not efficiently employed.
In addition, when the wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 is installed, a discharging outlet 14b of the exhaust fan 14 is required to be directed to one of forward, upward and rearward directions in accordance with an orientation of a discharging duct (not shown), which guides the exhaust gas to the outside. However, since the exhaust fan 14 of the conventional wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 is housed in the oven body 10, the oven body 10 must be dismantled in order to change a discharging direction of the exhaust gas. Therefore, with the conventional wall-mounted type microwave oven 1, changing of the discharging direction requires an inconvenient and time-consuming operation.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention is to provide a wall-mounted type microwave oven having an improved exhaust fan assembly structure which increases an internal volume of a cooking chamber, and easily allows a change of a discharging direction of exhaust gas.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
To achieve the above and other objects of the present invention, there is provided a wall-mounted type microwave oven comprising an oven body having a discharging outlet formed thereon, a cooking chamber partitioned in the oven body, an exhaust path defined between the oven body and the cooking chamber, and an exhaust fan assembly detachably coupled to the discharging outlet of the oven body, wherein an upper portion of the exhaust fan assembly protrudes from the oven body.
The exhaust fan assembly may comprise a fan case containing an exhaust fan therein, and a guide duct positioned on a side face of the fan case to guide exhaust gas toward the fan case.
A lower portion of the fan case may be disposed between a top wall of the cooking chamber and a top panel of the oven body, and communicates with the exhaust path. An upper portion of the fan case may protrude from the top panel of the oven body, so as to increase a chamber dimension of the cooking chamber by a distance of the protrusion of the fan case.
The fan case may include an inlet formed on the side face of the fan case and an outlet formed on an upper surface of the fan case. The outlet of the fan case may be directed to face one of upward, downward, forward, and rearward with respect to the oven body by separating the fan case from the oven body and fitting the fan case into the oven body to change a facing direction of the outlet.
The guide duct may be positioned so as to have its side face be in contact with an upper portion of the side face of the fan case protruding from the top panel of the oven body, and its lower end fitted into the discharging outlet of the oven body, so as to guide the exhaust gas discharged from the discharging outlet toward the upper portion of the fan case.